Automation era: How democratized learning supports employee retention and business growth

Many of the skills needed for modern business already exist within your organization. How do you find them?

By internally retraining and redeploying employees, employers can arm their workforce with the skills needed to support the company through modernization and growth. (Image: Shutterstock)

Automation, AI and digital transformation promise business efficiency and growth. But without the right people and skillsets in place, these transformative technologies could be more disruptive than helpful to businesses.

Organizations need to start reskilling their current employees to match the needs arising from new technology adoption. If not, employers risk a mismatch between the skills employees possess and the skills business require — known as a “skills gap.”

Related: To close the skills gap, let go of these 5 myths

Many of the skills needed for modern business already exist within your organization. To ensure open roles are filled by individuals with the proper expertise, leaders should develop talent from within by democratizing learning. A peer-to-peer upskilling program creates a culture of learning and ensures valuable skills are transferred across the organization — benefiting business operations, retention and talent acquisition.

The skills and roles employers need for the next decade

The World Economic Forum calls the rise of automation and COVID-19 digital transformation a “double-disruption” for workers. COVID-19 and the shift to a remote or contactless work environment accelerated companies’ digitalization efforts three to four years in just a matter of months. Additionally, it’s predicted that automation technology will make certain roles irrelevant, displacing as many as 800 million workers globally by 2030.

We are moving away from jobs involving menial “spreadsheet” tasks to professions that require critical thinking and a technology skillset.

By 2025, 43% of businesses plan to reduce their workforce due to technology integration, 41% plan to expand contract work for specialized tasks and 34% plan to expand their workforce due to technology integration. But replacing employees is expensive. A conservative estimate prices turnover, acquiring new talent and training at 30% of an employee’s annual salary — with the costs increasing as seniority level goes up. Valuable historical company knowledge also gets lost in the mix.

By internally retraining and redeploying employees, employers can circumvent many of these challenges and arm their workforce with the skills needed to support the company through modernization and growth. In fact, organizations are one-and-a-half times more likely to report a successful digital transformation when they develop talent and skills throughout the organization than when they don’t.

Upskilling talent through democratized learning

The jobs with the highest security in a future of automation require skills like creativity, strategic thinking, and experience with coding, data and software. These skills likely already exist within your workforce and can be passed on internally.

Democratizing learning involves connecting subject matter experts with coworkers across the organization. It helps create a culture of learning where employees are motivated to share and pursue new knowledge and skills. Peer-to-peer learning is also more authentic and helps employees build connections — which is especially challenging in a remote work environment.

Content developed internally is more relevant than pre-existing content because employees can share the exact context of how the skill or knowledge is applied to their specific organization.

Democratized learning also allows employees to pick and choose the areas they are most passionate about, creating greater satisfaction and engagement. Ninety-four percent of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development. Developing your employees shows your genuine commitment to their professional and personal advancement.

Digital tools make remote peer-to-peer learning possible

With the help of a robust learning management system (LMS), peer-to-peer learning and development (L&D) can be accomplished in a way that is accessible, interactive and effective. Live sessions can be recorded for future use and relevant classes can be linked together as a course.

The right digital tools (such as human capital management or payroll solution) can help forecast skills gaps and provide additional content to supplement your internal classes. An LMS can keep track of classes taken, modules completed and credentials earned, providing insight into the skills not being developed. You can then fill in the gaps by assigning or incentivizing taking external curricula.

Your LMS can track the time being devoted to L&D and send reminders to complete training. It can also help ensure your employees have enough time to dedicate to L&D — especially if they want to upskill and move to a new role.

Upskilling will be the new normal

Today’s rapid digital transformation is creating skills gaps. If unaddressed, your company won’t have the internal talent needed for modern business and future growth. Human resources has to take the lead in human capital management to forecast knowledge gaps and create opportunities for upskilling.

Democratized learning develops the necessary skills internally, fosters engagement and demonstrates your organization’s commitment to employee success. This approach might be unfamiliar and challenging — but the right digital tools with the ability to enable, support and measure employees’ participation in L&D can help you create a true culture of learning in the modern workplace.

Michael Haske is president and COO of Paylocity.

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